Software Defined Networking Components Research Articles

The Relevance of Development and Deployment of Software Defined Networking Solutions for a University Network

The rapid advancement of technology in today's world necessitates the development and deployment of robust and efficient networking architectures. This paper focuses on the relevant of creation and implementation of software defined networking (SDN) solutions for a university network, which offer improved network reachability and ease of navigation for network technicians. Utilizing the Ubuntu server command line interface within a virtual platform, all software defined networking components were seamlessly installed using a secure file transfer protocol client. To evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented SDN, Mininet was employed to supply OpenFlow switches within the software defined networking environment. This allowed for the integration of commands into a controller for thorough testing and assessment. The main parameters used in this paper are hosts, switches and a controller as the focus is on a single controller network. Because software defined networking centralizes and optimizes computer networks and removes irrelevant packets and frequent assaults for quick network performance, it makes networking intelligent and has several advantages over traditional networks. The successful implementation of software defined networking, as demonstrated in this paper, ensures that network technicians can swiftly identify and address challenges within computer networks of universities. This not only simplifies their tasks but also contributes to the overall efficiency and reliability of the network infrastructure.

A Framework for Policy Inconsistency Detection in Software-Defined Networks

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has aggressively grown in data center networks, telecommunication providers, and enterprises by virtue of its programmable and extensible control plane. Also, there have been many kinds of research on the security of SDN components along with the growth of SDN. Some of them have inspected network policy inconsistency problems that can severely cause network reliability and security issues in SDN. However, they do not consider whether a single network policy itself is corrupted during processing inside and between SDN components. In this paper, we thus focus on the question of how to automatically identify cases in which the SDN stack fails to prevent policy inconsistencies from arising among those components. We then present AudiSDN, an automated fuzz-testing framework designed to formulate test cases in which policy inconsistencies can arise in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OpenFlow</i> networks, the most prevalent SDN protocol. To prove its feasibility, we applied AudiSDN to two widely used SDN controllers, Floodlight and ONOS, and uncovered three separate CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) that cause the network policy inconsistencies among SDN components. Furthermore, we investigate the design flaws that cause the inconsistencies in modern SDN components, suggesting specific validations to address such a serious but understudied pragmatic concern.

Security Enhancement in Software Defined Networking (SDN): A Threat Model

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged as a technology which can replace the prevalent vendor based proprietary CLI networking devices. SDN has introduced applications based network control and provided various opportunities and challenges for research and innovation in these networks. Despite many advantages and opportunities in SDN, security is a matter of concern for developers who want to invest in SDN. In this paper we are analyzing the SDN security issues with their countermeasures. We have generalized four use cases threat model that should cover security requirements of SDN. These use cases are: (I) protect controllers from applications, (II) inter-controller protection, (III) protecting data plane or switches from controller, (IV) protecting controllers from malicious switches. We found that these SDN components are inter-related if one is secure another one is already secure. We also compared the SDN and traditional network security in terms of these four use cases and provide the insights for protection mechanism and security enhancements. A framework for the development of a SDN security application has been presented based on ryu controller. We believe that our threat model will help various researchers and developers to understand current security requirements and provide a ready reference to tackle vulnerabilities and threats in this area. Finally, we identify some open research problems and future research directions with a proposed security architecture.

Network traffic control for multi‐homed end‐hosts via SDN

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an emerging technology of efficiently controlling and managing computer networks, such as in data centres, wide-area networks, as well as in ubiquitous communication. In this study, the authors explore the idea of embedding the SDN components, represented by SDN controller and virtual switch, in end-hosts to improve network performance. In particular, the authors consider load balancing across multiple network interfaces on end-hosts with different link capacity scenarios. The authors have explored and implemented different SDN-based load-balancing approaches based on OpenFlow software switches, and have demonstrated the feasibility and the potential of this approach. The proposed system has been evaluated with MultiPath transmission control protocol (MPTCP). The proposed results demonstrated the potential of applying the SDN concepts on multi-homed devices resulting in an increase in achieved throughput of 55% compared to the legacy single network approach and 10% compared to the MPTCP.

A Framework for Real-Time Intrusion Response in Software Defined Networking Using Precomputed Graphical Security Models

Software defined networking (SDN) has been adopted in many application domains as it provides functionalities to dynamically control the network flow more robust and more economical compared to the traditional networks. In order to strengthen the security of the SDN against cyber attacks, many security solutions have been proposed. However, those solutions need to be compared in order to optimize the security of the SDN. To assess and evaluate the security of the SDN systematically, one can use graphical security models (e.g., attack graphs and attack trees). However, it is difficult to provide defense against an attack in real time due to their high computational complexity. In this paper, we propose a real-time intrusion response in SDN using precomputation to estimate the likelihood of future attack paths from an ongoing attack. We also take into account various SDN components to conduct a security assessment, which were not available when addressing only the components of an existing network. Our experimental analysis shows that we are able to estimate possible attack paths of an ongoing attack to mitigate it in real time, as well as showing the security metrics that depend on the flow table, including the SDN component. Hence, the proposed approach can be used to provide effective real-time mitigation solutions for securing SDN.

Formal Verification of SDN-Based Firewalls by Using TLA+

Software-defined networking (SDN) has generated increased interest due to the rapid growth in the amount of data generated by the development of the Internet and communications, the commercialization of 5G, and increasingly complex networks. While SDN is more advantageous than traditional networks in terms of efficient network management, rapid deployment, and dynamic scalability, the correctness of a network configuration must be ensured in advance. In other words, SDN components such as network devices, SDN controllers, and applications need to be deployed correctly and must be free of rule conflicts, particularly between various application policies; otherwise, it may result in network paralysis in the worst case. This paper assumes that the SDN network is free of rule conflicts when the rules in the SDN switches correctly obey firewall application or policies. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a verification framework for SDN using TLA+. We show that the firewall rule behavior of switches can be formalized using TLA+, and this is verified with the TLC model checker that uses TLA+ as the model description language. We check two different types of topology models through our verification framework to ensure that the same firewall rules are maintained even if the topology changes. The findings show that the firewall rules may be inconsistent as the topology changes.

Software defined vehicular networks: A comprehensive review

SummaryThe recent breakthroughs in the automobile industries and telecommunication technologies along with the exceptional multimodal mobility services brought focus on intelligent transportation system (ITS), of which vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) gain much more attention. The distinctive features of software‐defined networking (SDN) leverages the vehicular networks by its state of the centralized art having a comprehensive view of the network. Its potential to bring the flexibility, programmability and other extensive advancements to vehicular networks has set the stage for a novel networking paradigm termed as software‐defined vehicular networks (SDVNs). Many researchers have demonstrated the SDN‐based VANETs with the various configuration of the SDN components in VANET architecture. However, a compilation of the work on the SDN‐based VANET system as a whole, incorporating its architecture, use‐cases, and opportunities, is still inadequate. We start with the summary of the recent studies that exist on the SDVNs, followed by the comprehensive explanation of its components. Next, we present the taxonomy of SDVN based on the architecture modes, protocols, access technologies, and opportunities with trending technologies. Finally, we highlight the challenges, open research issues, and future research directions.

Bootstrapping trust in software defined networks

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a novel architectural model for cloud network infrastructure, improving resource utilization, scalability and administration. SDN deployments increasingly rely on virtual switches executing on commodity operating systems with large code bases, which are prime targets for adversaries attacking the network infrastructure. We describe and implement TruSDN, a framework for bootstrapping trust in SDN infrastructure using Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), allowing to securely deploy SDN components and protect communication between network endpoints. We introduce ephemeral flow-specific preshared keys and propose a novel defense against cuckoo attacks on SGX enclaves. TruSDN is secure under a powerful adversary model, with a minor performance overhead. (Less)

Enabling Fast and Slow Lanes for Content Providers Using Software Defined Networking

Residential broadband consumption is growing rapidly, increasing the gap between Internet service provider (ISP) costs and revenues. Meanwhile, proliferation of Internet-enabled devices is congesting access networks, degrading end-user experience, and affecting content provider monetization. In this paper, we propose a new model whereby the content provider explicitly signals fast- and slow-lane requirements to the ISP on a per-flow basis, using open APIs supported through software defined networking (SDN). Our first contribution is to develop an architecture that supports this model, presenting arguments on why this benefits consumers (better user experience), ISPs (two-sided revenue), and content providers (fine-grained control over peering arrangement). Our second contribution is to evaluate our proposal using a real trace of over 10 million flows to show that video flow quality degradation can be nearly eliminated by the use of dynamic fast-lanes, and web-page load times can be hugely improved by the use of slow-lanes for bulk transfers. Our third contribution is to develop a fully functional prototype of our system using open-source SDN components (Openflow switches and POX controller modules) and instrumented video/file-transfer servers to demonstrate the feasibility and performance benefits of our approach. Our proposal is a first step towards the long-term goal of realizing open and agile access network service quality management that is acceptable to users, ISPs, and content providers alike.

On network operating system security

SummaryThe emerging concept of software‐defined networking (SDN) enables new opportunities for building future networks. In such setups, a so‐called network operating system (NOS), which is also known as SDN controller, provides services to manage the underlying and programmable network infrastructure. On top, the so‐called SDN applications leverage NOS services and implement business needs in order to orchestrate the network as required. Thereby, such applications have access to all kinds of operations (including critical ones) to use valuable NOS and SDN resources. In case of faulty and malicious SDN applications, we demonstrate that today's NOSs can be significantly harmed, for example, by fatal errors and the adverse use of critical operations. To tackle this problem, we propose a sandbox system, which allows us to restrict not only SDN applications but also internal NOS components to access only a configurable set of critical operations. This enables operators to prevent the entire NOS from crashing in case a single SDN application or NOS component runs into a fatal error. Furthermore, operators can deny access to unwanted critical operations in order to prevent the potential misuse of such operations. For our proposal, we provide two proof‐of‐concept implementations: one for the industry's leading open‐source NOS called OpenDaylight and another one for the HP controller, which serves as foundation for the world's first SDN App Store. As a result of our work, we harden a mandatory SDN component, that is, the NOS, and achieve robustness as well as pro‐active security against faulty and malicious SDN software. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

A survey on software defined networking and its applications

Software defined networking (SDN) achieves network routing management with logically centralized control software that decouples the network data plane from the control plane. This new design paradigm greatly emancipates network innovation. This paper introduces the background of SDN technology with its design principles, explains its differentiation, and summarizes the research efforts on SDN network architecture, components and applications. Based on the observation of current SDN development, this paper analyzes the potential driving forces of SDN deployment and its future trend.

Guest editorial: Software defined networking

A major recent development in computer networking is the emergence of Software Defi ned Networking (SDN), whose goal is to provide a centralized, programmable control plane that is decoupled from the distributed data planes on individual network devices. In particular, the development of OpenFlow has demonstrated many potential benefits of SDN, and multiple vendors have started to offer commercial switches supporting the OpenFlow standard. Researchers have also made progress on SDN components including SDN controllers, switches, programming interfaces, verification and debugging tools, and SDN applications in data center networks and campus networks. Despite the progress, many important issues regarding SDN remain. The goal of this Special Topic Issue is to explore research and developments related to SDN to further its state of art.

Maturing of OpenFlow and Software-defined Networking through deployments

Software-defined Networking (SDN) has emerged as a new paradigm of networking that enables network operators, owners, vendors, and even third parties to innovate and create new capabilities at a faster pace. The SDN paradigm shows potential for all domains of use, including data centers, cellular providers, service providers, enterprises, and homes. Over a three-year period, we deployed SDN technology at our campus and at several other campuses nation-wide with the help of partners. These deployments included the first-ever SDN prototype in a lab for a (small) global deployment. The four-phased deployments and demonstration of new networking capabilities enabled by SDN played an important role in maturing SDN and its ecosystem. We share our experiences and lessons learned that have to do with demonstration of SDN’s potential; its influence on successive versions of OpenFlow specification; evolution of SDN architecture; performance of SDN and various components; and growing the ecosystem.